The Lacemaker

Spécial cinéma

Marcello Mastroianni, Isabelle Adjani, Alain Delon, Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen... the biggest stars in cinema were welcomed by Christian Defaye on his show Spécial cinéma. Between intimate confessions from actors and immersion in the world of the greatest filmmakers, Christian Defaye took viewers on a journey into the fascinating world of cinema for nearly thirty years.

The Roads of Exile

French philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau (François Simon) lives in 18th-century exile with his mistress (Dominique Labourier).

Léon Blum : Thérèse et Léon

In 1936, the political and marital tribulations of Léon Blum, elected President of the Council at the head of the Popular Front.

Orfeo

Claude Goretta brings to life the age-old tale of Orpheus and Eurydice in a fresh adaptation of Monteverdi’s Orfeo. Monteverdi’s fabled opera Orfeo was long described as the first opera to have been written. Although modern scholarship has proven this to be untrue, the work remains one of the pillars of western music history, a musical creation which laid the foundations for much of what was to come. As musicologist Jack Westrup explains, Orfeo marked a major milestone not because it broke new ground, but because imagination had taken precedence over theory. While Monteverdi may not have been a revolutionary, his music represents the culmination of centuries of musical evolution, and shows him as the clear master of both polyphony and monody.

Maigret

The pragmatic, reserved and refined Maigret investigates murders in his singular unhurried manner and inevitably discovers the truth.

Le Dernier Été

The story of Georges Mandel, an anti-Nazi French parliamentarian who refused to abdicate to the Vichy regime.

The Salamander

Pierre and Paul, journalist and writer respectively, team up to write a screenplay based on the real story of a young woman accused by her uncle of trying to kill him. They decide to meet her.

Goupi-Mains rouges

The Madman

George is a middle-aged man who lives with his disabled wife. He faces dire financial straits after an investment firm wipes out his life savings and forces him into early retirement. Consequently, he becomes increasingly disillusioned and desperate, which ultimately drives him to the brink of insanity.

The Death of Mario Ricci

A TV reporter and his assisstant go to a small Swiss village to do a programme with a reclusive scientist, an expert on world food shortages. During this time, an Italian immigrant worker is killed in a road crash and the reporter becomes involved in uncovering the truth about his death.

The Invitation

Rémi, a confirmed bachelor and model bureaucrat, invites his colleagues and superiors to a magnificent house to celebrate an inheritance. Under the influence of drink, they drop all pretence and reveal their true selves. But what will remain of this brief interlude the following day?

Sartre, Years of Passion

Biographical film about French writer Jean-Paul Sartre, concentrating on his passionate affairs with women.

Nice Time

A montage of the night-life of Piccadilly Circus across the hours, from early evening to the last lingering passers-by.

Jean-Luc Persécuté

Jean-Luc, mountain farmer, married Christine. She accepted this marriage because the man she loved, Augustin, left. Jean-Luc knows this but he hopes that the birth of a child will allow them to live together possible. Unfortunately, daily life between work in the fields and Sunday mass destroys their understanding. After Augustin's return, Christine becomes his mistress and Jean-Luc discovers it. He chases Christine away and remains alone with their child but the latter drowns shortly after in a pond. Refusing to believe in the death of his son, Jean-Luc descends into madness. When a few years later, he sees Christine again with Augustin's child, out of jealousy, he kills the mother and the child, before killing himself.

Les Rendez-vous du dimanche

A talk show presented by Michel Drucker

If the Sun Never Returns

In a remote Swiss mountain village, the self-proclaimed prophet and sorcerer Anzevui foretells that the sun will never return, plunging the community into eternal winter. As fear and panic spread among the villagers, most succumb to despair. However, a young woman named Isabelle courageously resists the collective hysteria, ultimately rallying a group to ascend above the fog-covered valley in search of the elusive sun.

A Guy Thing

Paul Morse is a good guy. When his friends throw him a wild bachelor party, he just wants to keep his conscience clean -- which is why he's shocked when he wakes up in bed with a beautiful girl named Becky and can't remember the night before. Desperate to keep his fiancée, Karen, from finding out what may or may not be the truth, he tells her a teensy lie. Soon his lies are spiraling out of control and his life is a series of comical misunderstandings.

EverAfter

Danielle, a vibrant young woman, was forced into servitude after the death of her father when she was a young girl. Danielle's stepmother, Rodmilla, is a heartless woman who forces Danielle to do the cooking and cleaning, while she tries to marry off the eldest of her two daughters to the prince. But Danielle's life takes a wonderful turn when, under the guise of a visiting royal, she meets the charming Prince Henry.

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg

This simple romantic tragedy begins in 1957. Guy Foucher, a 20-year-old French auto mechanic, has fallen in love with 17-year-old Geneviève Emery, an employee in her widowed mother's chic but financially embattled umbrella shop. On the evening before Guy is to leave for a two-year tour of combat in Algeria, he and Geneviève make love. She becomes pregnant and must choose between waiting for Guy's return or accepting an offer of marriage from a wealthy diamond merchant.

The Longest Day

The retelling of June 6, 1944, from the perspectives of the Germans, US, British, Canadians, and the Free French. Marshall Erwin Rommel, touring the defenses being established as part of the Reich's Atlantic Wall, notes to his officers that when the Allied invasion comes they must be stopped on the beach. "For the Allies as well as the Germans, it will be the longest day"

Summer of 85

What do you dream of when you're 16-years-old and in a seaside resort in Normandy in the 1980s? A best friend? A lifelong teen pact? Scooting off on adventures on a boat or a motorbike? Living life at breakneck speed? No. You dream of death. Because you can't get a bigger kick than dying. And that's why you save it till the very end. The summer holidays are just beginning, and this story recounts how Alexis grew into himself.

Human Resources

"Good son" Franck returns to his hometown to do a trainee managerial internship in the Human Resources department of the factory where his anxious, taciturn father has worked for 23 years.

The Wings of the Dove

Kate is secretly betrothed to a struggling journalist, Merton Densher. But she knows her Aunt Maude will never approve of the match, since Kate's deceased mother has lost all her money in a marriage to a degenerate opium addict. When Kate meets a terminally ill American heiress named Millie traveling through Europe, she comes up with a conniving plan to have both love and wealth.

The Hidden Blade

Set in 19th Century Japan a young samurai who finds himself in love with a farm girl leaves his home to begin a new life. He has to take stock of his new life when he is put to the test and ordered to kill a traitor who just happens to be his dearest friend.